EDITORIAL: Handouts no substitute for self-help

Other than the political necessity to be seen to do the right thing, even Helen Clark is likely to find it difficult to give rock star Bono's "Take action on Poverty" campaign unalloyed enthusiasm.
Bono is to present Miss Clark with a petition demanding "she take action on poverty". The Prime Minister might argue that she doesn't presume to offer advice on the music industry, so why should the front man for the Irish band U2 presume to advise her?
There is no doubting the sincerity of Bono and those who support "Make Poverty History". It is not a case of celebrity narcissism in search of a cause, but motivated from recognition of the dreadful effects of dire poverty (which makes a mockery of our own shifting definition).
"Make Poverty History" is a great slogan and no one with an ounce of humanity could wish it were otherwise. The movement inveighs against global bankers who ensnare the third world with crippling debt, against protectionism that subsidises wealthy producers and impoverishes others ... and it urges the giving of much more aid.
The last is all Miss Clark can influence. If those she represents were fully confident more aid was the antidote to poverty, there would be no issue. However, there is too much evidence - from the mouths of the recipients themselves - that aid (should it get past the grasping tiers of government officials) wrecks those it is supposed to help. African nations need freedom, not aid.
In 2003 Evans Munyemesha wrote in The Zambian, that development aid "has financed the creation of monstrous projects that, at vast expense, have devastated the environment and ruined lives". Rather than getting down to "the hard task of wealth creation", he says, "easy handouts" have been substituted for the rigours of self-help, leaving the receiving countries economically crippled. "(Africa) has lost self-sufficiency ... to become a continent-sized beggar hopelessly dependent on the largesse of outsiders. Per-capita food production has fallen in every year since the 1960s. Seven out of every 10 Africans are now destitute or on the verge of extreme poverty". The continent had the world's highest infant mortality rate, the lowest life-expectancy, the lowest literacy rate, the fewest doctors per capita, and the fewest children in school.
One man to recognise that aid destroys initiative is the newest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus. The Nobel committee noted that Mr Yunus had done more to help the world than virtually anyone alive today.
He found the alternative to the enslavement of Western aid was to offer small loans, at commercial rates of interest, to Bangladeshis with no collateral and no credit rating. It was a gamble, but his trust has been returned in full measure. Mr Yunus' Grameen Bank has handed out more than $5.7 billion since 1983. Repayment rates are consistently in the 90 to 100 percent range. The scheme has helped more than six million people (97 percent of them women) become part of the global economy. It has inspired similar groups, in more than 40 countries, to offer loans to more than 90 million people. Mr Yunus' contribution has been heroic because it was so practical. It gave people the independence that charity so easily steals from them.